Home Central Air A/C help?

I have a older Central A/C unit at my Home.About 10 yrs old.I turned on my Central Air today.Was cooling fine.About a hour later all the sudden I hear a very loud exploding Air sound outside at the A/C compressor unit.It sounded like if someone popped a tire and let the Air out.Ever since then it doesn't get cold anymore.When runnng,I can hear the outside Compressor unit humming but,also Air leaking sound as well.

I checked each line at the outside unit to see if there is still Freon in the lines and there still is Freon in both lines. R22 I do believe....

Is my compressor shot?Hate to pay someone $100 to come-out just to tell me it's shot.Any advice?

There's still Freon in the lines but,yet I hear Air Leaking when the compressor is running/humming.

 

How do you know there is still refrigerant in it. How did you check it?

 

The Compressor unit outside has two lines at the unit.One small and one larger line.Both lines has a small cap.I removed the two caps and pushed the button to see if there still is Freon in the lines and there still is .Thats how I tested to see if there still is Freon in the system.What is this Air sound when the A/C compressor unit is running?

 

So,any help or advice please?

 

By pushing open the Schrader valves, all you did was show that there is some pressure in the system. To check the refrigerant (R22) level, you need to connect gauges up to the system. That aspect of working on A/C systems is forbidden to be discussed on this forum. In addition, you need to be EPA licensed to work with R22 and connect anything to a working system.

One test you can do to see if the compressor is working and there is sufficient refrigerant is to feel the temperature of the two copper lines where they connect to the outside unit. With the system running (for several minutes) the larger line should be cold and the small line should be slightly warm. If they both feel about the same temperature, you have a problem.